arXiv:cond-mat/0608291 · Physical Review A
Collective oscillations of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates and accurate comparison between contact and dipolar interactions
S. Giovanazzi, Luis Santos, Tilman Pfau
Abstract
We propose a scheme for the measurement of the $s$-wave scattering length $a$ of an atom or molecule with significant dipole-dipole interaction with an accuracy at the percent level. The frequencies of the collective oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate are shifted by the magnetic dipole interaction. The shift is polarization dependent and proportional to the ratio ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\mathrm{dd}}$ of dipolar and $s$-wave coupling constants. Measuring the differences in the frequencies for different polarization we can extract the value of ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{\mathrm{dd}}$ and thus measure $a$. We calculate the frequency shifts for a large variety of nonaxisymmetric harmonic traps in the Thomas-Fermi limit and find optimal trapping geometries to maximize the shifts.